We all have a role to play - the President, Congress, parents, students and schools - in making college affordable and keeping the middle class dream alive.

If children are hungry, they need to be fed. It's hard to learn if your stomach is growling. We need to take that on. If students can't see the blackboard, need eyeglasses, we need to do that. If students need a social worker or counselor to work through the challenges they're facing at home in the community, we need to do that.

There was nothing more important I could do than be supportive as a dad.

Other countries haves passed us by. They're outworking us. They're outcompeting us. We have got to wake up and we have got to start moving.

The only way we get better is to look in the mirror, assess our strengths and weaknesses, and figure out where we need to go. But if we run around saying, we're number one, we're number one, and we're not, that doesn't help us get where we need to go.

The cost of college should never discourage anyone from going after a valuable degree.

City Year is taking on some of the toughest work in education.